The plot is situated in the centre of El Sauzal, a small town that occupies a prominent hillside position in the northeast of the island of Tenerife.
The building is located in a pocket of land inside an existing block and connects a new system of open spaces—footpaths and landscaped areas—that run on a north-south axis down the hillside and are intended to foster urban relations in this direction.
The essential idea of the building is to create an open, multi-purpose space where the local council can carry out different cultural activities.
Due to the diversity of the predicted program uses (municipal library, small auditorium, media centre, etc.) and the need to adapt to the steep grade of the hillside, the building has been distributed into several segments arranged in a stepped fashion. These make up the different areas of the Cultural Centre, and are arranged around two large landscaped areas that link the access level to the different segments with the sloped, exterior public space, and with the footpath that leads to the surrounding town squares.
This distribution creates a subtle differentiation and independence between the various proposed functional areas, expressing the public nature of the building and its pathways as an extension of the exterior public space.
Project
El Sauzal Cultural Centre
Situation
Calle Constitución,7. El Sauzal. Tenerife. Canary Islands. Spain
Architects
GPY Arquitectos
Project Team
Juan Antonio González Pérez, Urbano Yanes Tuña
Technical Team
José Domingo Bethencourt, Juan José de Armas
Civil Engineers
Gpi Ingenieros
Technical Drawings
Miriam Hernández Pérez
Client
Canary Islands Regional Government: Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs
Contract
Ferconsa / Construcciones Jaers
Constructed Surface
1,808.10 m2
Models
José Luis González Doña
Photographs
José Ramón Oller
Awards
Premio de Arquitectura de Canarias Manuel de Oráa y Arcocha, XIth Edition, 2004: Selected
Publications
Book: Ruiz Cabrero, Gabriel: Guía de Arquitectura Contemporánea / Contemporary Architecture Guide 1962-2006. Tenerife. Tenerife: Cabildo Insular de Tenerife, 2008
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